The sound of luxury

A NEW Zealand cruise is not just a holiday aboard a luxury liner, it's an escape that brings you up close to breathtaking wilderness and endearing wildlife.

Along for the ride ... a dolphin swims with kayakers in Milford Sound / AP

SUDDENLY the window of our cabin is filled by the sight of a huge rock, tree and mist covered cliffs. After three days of nothing but the rolling Tasman Sea, the view is awesome. We have arrived in New Zealand's Milford Sound, the first "port" of call on a 13-day cruise around Australia's next door neighbour.

The cruise, aboard the Pacific Princess, will take in New Zealand's Fiordland, along with visits to Dunedin, Christchurch, Picton, Auckland and the wonderful Bay of Islands before returning to Sydney.

Cascades of water (why couldn't some of this be sent back to parched South Australia?) run down rocky outcrops and the captain manouevres the huge vessel up to the 300m high Bowen Falls and one of the ship's crew stands on the bow with an inflatable kangaroo - the ship's mascot - so passengers can take photographs.

Milford Sound runs 15km inland from the Tasman Sea forming part of what is known as New Zealand's Fiordland.

Early Maori people hunted birds here, caught fish and gathered pounamu (NZ jade) from the rivers. Later, sealers and whalers took shelter in the fjords and built small settlements in a number of locations.

There is diverse flora and fauna with more than 700 plants found in Fiordland and it is also home to seals, penguins, and the strangest of NZ's birds - the flightless takaha.

After leaving the serene waters of the Sound, the Pacific Princess once again hits the open sea, "rocking and rolling" - the crew's description - as we hit heavy swells going around Secretary Island and passing through Thompson and Doubtful sounds.

Cruising on the Pacific Princess is a luxury holiday because it's a holiday where you choose just what you will, or will not, do.

The biggest decision you will have to make is on what deck you are going to have breakfast, or whether you just want to sleep on the pool deck all day - admittedly a little on the cool side while in the southern parts of New Zealand waters.

And while you cruise between ports, there is plenty to do on board. You can shop in the ship's duty free stores, go to the casino, eat in any of the four restaurants (or the poolside barbecue). You can also enjoy room service.

One of the special treats on the Pacific Princess is the champagne breakfast - a gastronomic delight which includes seafood, pastries and fruit topped off with a bottle of Moet et Chandon.

There are also movies 24 hours a day on your cabin television and in the Cabaret lounge on Deck 5, books to read in the well-stocked library on Deck 10 along with cards and board games. Those who really want to relax can visit the spa lounge on Deck 9 for a massage, a facial, hairstyling.

Passengers are also given a choice of other programs including learning computers, wine tasting, paper flower making and ice and fruit sculpture demonstrations.

Of course, this is just to keep you occupied until the next port of call. In each stop, passengers are given from 9am to 5.30pm to go ashore and that is plenty of time to see the sights in places such as Dunedin, do some shopping and sightseeing in Christchurch, (especially the International Antarctic Centre), follow the wine trail in Picton (the gateway to the south island) and the Marlborough winegrowing district, more shopping in cosmopolitan Auckland. . .

In the Bay of Islands, you can cruise the day away with a sail through the famous Hole in the Rock, or among privately owned islands. You can swim with dolphins - even visit the wonderful Treaty House at Waitangi where the 1840 pact between the British and Maoris, which granted the British the right to govern the country, was signed.

Discovered in 1769 by Captain James Cook, the Bay of Islands was named because of the 150 islands dotted throughout the exquisitely beautiful bay.

Over the next 40 years, European whalers, sealers and traders came and went until in 1814, missionaries established a small settlement which eventually became the harbour town of Russell - the oldest town in New Zealand and headquarters of the South Pacific whaling fleet in the 1830s.

Russell, which is now a picturesque little town nestled on the side of verdant slopes reaching down to the bay, was once described as "the hell hole of the Pacific".

Now, British millionaires pay up to $3.5 million for former bed and breakfast houses and turn them into their own personal holiday homes overlooking the bay.

The Pacific Princess cannot dock in the Bay of Islands. It has to stay moored out in the middle of the bay and send passengers ashore in the ship's tender boats.

There is plenty to see and do in this beautiful environment which has abundant bird and marine life and offers anglers some of the finest fishing in the world. Most of the fish caught in the bay are blue do, terakihi, trevally and snapper. If fishing is not your thing, try a four-hour kayaking tour which enables you to explore the Waitangi Estuary and its mysterious mangrove trees.

Seals, dolphins and, sometimes, whales can be spotted in the sparkling waters inside and just off the bay.

On the mainland, the giant Kauri trees of Waipoua Forest are famous. Everything is green. Beaches are plentiful.

Catamarans sprint across the bay, hopping from island to island, visiting areas such as Oihi Bay where the Reverend Samuel Marsden preached NZ's first Christian service on Christmas Day, 1814. There is also Moturua Island, a wildlife reserve which is home to some of the nation's rarest and endangered birds, including the saddleback, north island robin and spotted kiwi.

After leaving the Bay of Islands, it is once again back on the high seas for the final leg back to Sydney - plenty of parties, plenty of eating and drinking and also extra trips to the walking track to try and lose some of the weight gained over 13 days at sea.

The author was a guest of Princess Cruises.